FLOODING. 375 



eccentric manner on the one hand, and on the other compelling the 

 uterus to distend mechanically, so as to receive the fluid that is efTused: 

 I am aware, that in presence of facts, argument ought to be silent; 

 but then, those facts ought to be incontestable, well noted, and pro- 

 perly interpreted: now can these conditions be recognised in a ma- 

 jority of those that have been mentioned in favor of internal floodings? 

 Is it quite certain that the blood in some instances found betwixt 

 the placenta and the womb had accumulated there during life, rather 

 than immediately after death; that that which escaped in torrents as 

 the membranes gave way was not efTused before hand in the interior 

 of the amnios? How, indeed, can we conceive that the blood which 

 escapes from the uterine vessels in somewhat considerable quantities 

 is capable of dilating beyond measure, and almost instantaneously, tlie 

 cavity of the womb, instead of running between the gestative organ 

 and its contents, so as to escape outwards, or of rupturing the mem- 

 branes and becoming eff'used within their cavity? How can we 

 admit that the adherences of the placenta, which are habitually so 

 weak, could resist the effort of the blood, tending to form a new 

 cavity for its own reception, more powerfully than the uterus, which 

 yields with so much difficulty? 



Until these various questions shall be solved rigorously, I shall 

 continue, with Mesdames Boivin and Lachapelle, to think that the 

 existence of internal flooding, such as it is generally understood, 

 ought not to be admitted, except under pretty numerous restrictions, 

 and also, that what has been hitherto said in relation to it needs con- 

 firmation. 



It should in all cases be accompanied with the same symptoms as 

 external hemorrhagy, from which it should be distinguishable only 

 by the absence of blood flowing externally, or by the natural size of 

 the womb or abdomen. 



871. Flooding ivith implantation of the placenta over the cervix. 

 According to Rigby, floodings produced by the attachment of the 

 placenta in the vicinity of the orifice, ought to be of extremely fre- 

 quent occurrence, for, in one hundred and six cases, he met with 

 it forty-three times; and Madame Lachapelle goes so far as to say 

 that uterine hemorrhage occurring in the three last months of preg- 

 nancy, depends almost upon no other cause. Be this as it may, this 

 kind of flooding is distinct from other species, in that, it never takes 

 place before the fifth month; that the blood at first flows in small 

 quantity, and stops of its own accord, to re-appear in greater 

 abundance after a week or two; in that, it pretty often comes on 

 without any assignable cause, or precursory symptoms ; that it 

 returns after shorter intervals, and is in greater abundance as the 



